Scott Dalton
Where the River Bends
presented in conjunction with the artist’s May exhibition of Exit Taft at Newspace Center for Photography
May 6-31, 2015
Since 2010, artist Scott Dalton has been photographing along the US-Mexico border, returning multiple times each year to capture on film the fraught relationship between two major cities—Ciudad Juárez in Mexico and El Paso, Texas—that share history, traditions, and geography, but are physically and politically divided. Dalton’s resulting series, Where the River Bends, depicts daily life on both sides of the Rio Grande, emphasizing the cultural similarities and interdependence between these sister cities while simultaneously revealing the conflict and inequalities reinforced by such a border.
“With this project I am trying to engage with the border as a metaphorical launching point to address a variety of themes. Borders are divisive by intent, emphasizing differences between ethnicities, cultures, economies, and nations. The subject is rife with political and social implications for poverty, the drug-war and—perhaps most notably today— immigration. But beyond these ideas I am trying to address what the border represents to the people who actually live there. This is a multifaceted realm that tends to include contradictory perspectives. For example, the border can be a land of opportunity for poor Mexican workers looking for jobs in foreign-owned factories in Ciudad Juárez, or viewed as a lawless danger zone to be feared and fenced off by others. I am also interested in the idea of the proximity and possibility of the American Dream and what that means to people on both sides of the border.”
Scott Dalton is a freelance photographer currently living in Houston, Texas. Prior to returning to his home state of Texas, Dalton spent fourteen years in Bogotá, Colombia photographing the civil conflict and drug war there. He now photographs both editorial and corporate assignments while spending his free time working on long-term personal projects that focus on the often-fragile relationship between people and the places they live. He is currently working on projects along the troubled US-Mexico border region as well as throughout the American South. His photography has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers worldwide.